Study Ranks Mental Health as Young People's Top Health Problem

Tuesday, June 7, 2011 -- Mental health problems are the leading cause of disability among children, teens & young adults worldwide, according to a new study. Researchers who analyzed global data collected in 2004 found that neuropsychiatric disorders -- including depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and alcohol use --accounted for 45 percent of the disease burden among those 10 to 24 years old.

The researchers also found that important risk factors among young people that affect their health later in life include unsafe sex, alcohol use, iron deficiency and lack of birth control.

"The disease burden arising in early adolescence from major risk factors is low," the researchers wrote. "However, rates rise sharply in late adolescence & early adulthood for both alcohol & unsafe sex. For other risk factors that commonly start in adolescence, such as tobacco use, low physical activity, high blood pressure, & overweight & obesity, their contribution to disease becomes apparent only in mid- to-late adulthood," according to Fiona M. Gore, department of health statistics & informatics at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, & colleagues.

"Our risk factor data suggest that preventive strategies should adopt a life-course approach whereby the focus on the adolescent and young-adult years is prominent," the authors concluded. People aged 10 to 24, numbering more than 1.8 billion, represent 27 percent of the world's population, the report noted.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_112924.html By Robert Preidt